


The Great and Powerful Howard Stark

by pyrrhical (anoyo)



Category: Iron Man - All Media Types, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-23
Updated: 2013-11-23
Packaged: 2018-10-21 08:30:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10681560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anoyo/pseuds/pyrrhical
Summary: Tony continuing, as always, to compare himself to the man behind the curtain.





	The Great and Powerful Howard Stark

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted [here](http://fic-promptly.dreamwidth.org/211280.html?thread=8853840#cmt8853840).
> 
> Once part of an anthology, which I hated, so reposted alone. Ta-dah!

Being the son of the Great and Powerful Howard Stark meant that, really, Tony had ever only had one destiny: to be the next Great and Powerful Howard Stark.

To be honest? It wasn’t a job he particularly wanted to fill. For starters, Tony was pretty sure the Great and Powerful Howard Stark was pretty similar to the Great and Powerful Oz: really awe-inspiring as a booming voice and a lot of dry ice, but actually just a man hiding behind a curtain.

In this case, a curtain of brilliance, invention, and work. Years since his father died, and Tony was still about 99% sure he had never actually _met_ his father. He had only ever seen the smoke, while the man hid away behind public perception and his work.

That meant, somehow, that in order to be the Great and Powerful Howard Stark, Tony would have to hide what made him _Tony_ away behind a similar curtain. And that? That was just not something he was willing to do.

Tony had always been somewhat selfish. When he wanted something, he _wanted_ it. Whether or not it was best for the man he was meant to be. To the world, he was more than just somewhat selfish. He was a playboy with almost zero work ethic, the numbers said. 

What the numbers didn’t say was that, though Tony had always known his destiny, there was a part of him that had always known that if he didn’t have that on his shoulders, he would have been someone else entirely. Not a racecar driver, or an actor, or anything equally flashy, like he told the press when he was invariably asked, “If you weren’t the head of Stark Industries, what would you do, Mr. Stark?” 

Ever since he had been a little boy, Tony had wanted to be an adventurer. He had wanted to take off into places unknown, unseen, untraveled, and find his own paths. He had wanted to take that creative energy he was so famous for and use it in more ways than just engineering for the military.

Now, with Iron Man the public image, and Tony Stark, Head of Stark Industries, cooling on a backburner somewhere, Tony wasn’t sure it was what he had always wanted, but he felt like, maybe, it was a step or two closer.


End file.
